"First thing I do when I get up is walk Blue, my dog. I don't know if he's
baby substitute - he's actually a dog substitute, for the last dog I had

"I live on the water in Vancouver. I've got a little tree house, full of
a gang of six-year olds, and I have to climb a rope to get down every morning.
No, really, it's a simple, small house from around 1910, so nothing as old
as you're used to in Britain. But it's right on the ocean. I love seeing
the water. Always have.

"Vancouver is a beautiful city. Logistically, it's perfect for TheXFiles.
We move around so much, with the traffic in LA it just wouldn't happen. In
LA you can only do a studio, or a show that has one location - like Baywatch.
We're shooting all over the place, so Vancouver is ideal.

"First thing I do when I get up is walk Blue, my dog. I don't know if he's
a baby substitute. He's actually a dog substitute, for the last dog I had.
He's a receptacle of love - and love is much easier to give to a dog than
to a person. Just look at the reaction he elicits when he's on set with me.
He puts things in perspective.

"In the morning I work out, or look at my script if I need to. Then I get
something to eat. I'm pretty much a vegetarian. Diet is important in my job.
You have a commitment to a 10-month schedule, and you can't stay home even
one day - you really can't. It would cost the production company hundreds
of thousands of dollars.

"If Gillian [Anderson] or I get sick, what can they do? We've had colds,
but nothing to keep us in bed. It's lucky that neither of us has been injured.
The show can't go on without us. Well, actually, Gillian got taken off for
a while because she got injured in a "pregnant" way [the script was written
in a way that enabled her to take time off to have a child], but it's just
good luck there's been nothing else.

"If I'm not filming, I sit in my trailer on the lot. I haven't bothered to
make it feel like home. I come in every morning and think maybe I should,
but I never do. Blue sits in his basket and makes it feel right. There's
just my stereo playing old rock 'n' roll stuff like the Rolling Stones and
the Beatles.

"We get a 12-hour turnaround on TheXFiles. That means whenever I wrap on
the set the night before, they can't legally call me back for 12 hours. But
as my house is 90 minutes away, the turnaround becomes nine hours. So its
hard to live a life. Especially if you're preparing your work as well.

"Sometimes the weeks go by and you can do things in the evening. My girlfriend
[actress Perrey Reeves] lives in LA, and we see each other every other weekend.
The separation is hard on us both. Its difficult because we're constantly
either saying hello or leaving one another.

"There's really no way of talking about it conventional terms. It's not a
conventional relationship. How could it be? We live in different cities.
Its only two-and-a-half hours by plane, but thats hard. You could
cover all of England in two-and-a-half hours, couldn't you? This is a big
country.

"My relatives are Scottish, so I think my Scottish audience is important.
Some are in Glasgow, but my mum's from Aberdeen. I hear it's grey there -
like my mum. The name's Russian, but New York is my home. That's where I'm
from. I have a dream. I wouldn't mind working the show from there one day.

"Back home I relax with Blue. I'm usually reading. At the moment it's Martin
Amis. I read for maybe ten minutes if I can keep my eyes open, so I have
an experience of something else beside The X Files. That way I sleep much
better."